Bluetooth mouse won't reconnect

This is a classic example of two of the world’s leading lights, in technology, behaving badly/ineptly or some could say in collusion, by default, not necessarily with any malicious aforethought (one for the lawyers), perhaps…

The scenario runs like this:

Apple releases an update to its OS which changes the way it handles Bluetooth pairing. They will often do this regardless of any adverse effects these changes may cause to third party Bluetooth devices. Let’s face it, they often release updates that break their own Bluetooth devices, never mind third party ones.

This causes Bluetooth pairing issues with multiple vendor’s Bluetooth devices.

At this point the vendor of the Bluetooth device has two options:

1. Officially end support for MacOS for the device and update their product support information on their Web site, to reflect this.
2. Work with Apple to resolve the issue, whilst updating their product support information, detailing the known issue, until the issue is fixed and they are able to maintain proper support for the device on MacOS.

What has happened here is that Microsoft and Apple have not worked together, for whatever reason, to fix this bug. Add to this, Microsoft have not done the right thing and updated their product support information, for this device, on their Web site, to reflect either a known bug, that is being worked on, or official end for support of the OS, for this device.

In essence this is an example of both vendors not valuing the hundreds of people (check the thread counts for this issue on both the Apple and Microsoft support forums, as well as third party forums) who have, are and will continue to experience these problems, now and with future generations of Bluetooth devices. Ultimately, Bluetooth devices are seen as almost disposable peripherals. If the OS vendors break them, with OS updates, that change the way Bluetooth devices are handled, then they pretty well expect you to move on and buy another device that will work. This ongoing situation benefits both Apple and Microsoft, as well as other Bluetooth peripheral vendors, as it guarantees a reasonably significant percentage increase in sales of Bluetooth devices. In the end, the ultimate losers are, as usual, us suckers, at the bottom of the technology food chain.

The irony is that Bluetooth devices are often sold as the premium end of the peripheral market, with inflated prices to suit. Thereby making them less of a disposable device than cabled or RF wireless devices, which will undoubtedly work for you for longer, with fewer of these vendor driven, "built in obsolescence features”, AKA crappy Bluetooth support.

stainlessstill wrote:

(...)

As a result my Microsoft Arc Touch Bluetooth Mouse could be paired and could work unless I shutdown or sleep my mac. The next time the mouse couldn't reconnect and could only be paired to get it to work. I examined logs with Bluetooth logging turned on. There were some problems noted in the log-file. But it was too much of a time waste without any chance for a fix.

Finally, either I was doing the wrong way or there are real problems with bluetooth daemon in Sierra where communication between a device and an OS leads to errors that can't be fixed by modifying or resetting Bluetooth settings.

Are you still trying to figure it out? I've been poking around a bit this weekend.

From what I can tell, the reason it didn't work is because macOS stores the paired devices' information somewhere else. The fact it worked for the first boot was not because you edited the information in from El Capitan.

Two scenarios I've tested:

1. Booted El Capitan from an external drive, paired the mouse there, deleted all com.apple.Bluetooth*.plist from Sierra. Then booted into sierra. Result: Mouse was fully functional for the first boot.
2. Using a different (working) Bluetooth peripheral (Microsoft Wedge Mobile keyboard), I've paired it in Sierra, turned it off, then deleted all com.apple.Bluetooth*.plist, finally rebooted back into Sierra. Not only its MAC still appeared in the Bluetooth devices list, the keyboard connected.

My understanding is that those plist are merely a cache. Modifying them will change the information displayed in the bluetooth devices list (both the one in the top menu & system information), but doesn't actually influence the Bluetooth connections. I suppose it's safe to assume macOS is storing the information it works with somewhere else. Any ideas as to where?

On a related note, I noticed the Microsoft Arc Touch isn't detected as mouse in El Capitan either. As the screenshot shows, it's easy to edit that information in, though it doesn't change its behavior.

Yeah it stores it, haven't figured out where though. Some information (device's id, but not name for instance) survives SMC and NVRAM resets even when those known plist have been deleted.

What I haven't tried yet is to pair the devices in another macOS/hard-drive, delete the plists, reset SMC and NVRAM and check if they'd still show up in Sierra. If they didn't, they would most likely be stored in the hard drive, which would open the doors for further manipulation (in hopes to attempt a workaround).

The question is: why do some devices stay remembered by the OS while others don't?

That's the question... My guess is that either Apple accidentally introduced a bug (though it's weird it only affects a small number of devices), or more likely, the mice don't fully conform with the guidelines (https://developer.apple.com/hardwaredrivers/BluetoothDesignGuidelines.pdf) and Apple went stricter on it.

Either way, I suppose we'll all be in the market for new mice. Which is a shame, I personally really like this one.

P.S. Just for a hint: Arc Touch BT Mouse increments its BT device id every time it gets re-paired.

I've noticed, thanks for the heads up. It's an especially annoying behavior!

just bought the arc yesterday, love the design and the fact that it's flat when turned off...

however, same issue as the others: on my mbp, with sierra, I can connect it, but to recconnect I have to delete it from bluetooth menu and pair it again.... each time over and over again....

Frustrating for such a pricy mouse!

I assume there is no solution (yet)?

Daniel

@dan1el_nl no solution as of yet. 😟

It's frustrating indeed, especially when the mouse works fine in Windows and worked perfectly fine in El Capitan. The issues started with Sierra.

@Tulan So the Microsoft Designer Bluetooth mouse has the exact same problem as the Arc Touch Bluetooth? Did it also work fine prior to Sierra?

So weird that two Microsoft mice stopped working properly after the upgrade to Sierra. I wonder if is there any other mice from other manufacturers with the exact same symptoms, or bluetooth keyboards. At least the Microsoft Wedge Mobile keyboard works fine (I own one).

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Rodrigues.SA has posted in the macOS Sierra community.

Bluetooth mouse won't reconnect

Yeah it stores it, haven't figured out where though. Some information (device's id, but not name for instance) survives SMC and NVRAM resets even when those known plist have been deleted.

What I haven't tried yet is to pair the devices in another macOS/hard-drive, delete the plists, reset SMC and NVRAM and check if they'd still show up in Sierra. If they didn't, it'd mean they were stored in the hard drive, which would open the doors for further manipulation (in hopes to attempt a workaround).

The question is: why do some devices stay remembered by the OS while others don't?

That's the question... My guess is that either Apple accidentally introduced a bug (though it's weird it only affects a small number of devices), or more likely, the mice don't fully conform with the guidelines (https://developer.apple.com/hardwaredrivers/BluetoothDesignGuidelines.pdf) and Apple went stricter on it.

Either way, I suppose we'll all be in the market for new mice.

P.S. Just for a hint: Arc Touch BT Mouse increments its BT device id every time it gets re-paired.

I've noticed, thanks for the heads up. It's an especially annoying behavior!

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Thought I was the only one until I found this post. I'm having the same issue with a MX Master bluetooth mouse. Only work-around I've found so far is using my keyboard to search for bluetooth preferences. As soon as the bluetooth preferences window pops up my mouse reconnects. I'm running sierra 10.12.2 on a 13" 2015 macbook pro retina.

Same issue here. I'm using a new Logitech Triathalon mouse so I can connect it to both my wife's 2015 MacBook Pro and my 2016 MacBook. The issue exists for both computers and I have tried both deleting the .plist file as well as resetting the PRAM.

Interestingly, Sierra also fails to see the Logitech mouse as a mouse, just uses the general bluetooth logo.

MORE interestingly, I also have a Magic Mouse that I use for my iMac. I have been able to pair it and use it to wake both the MacBook Pro and MacBook from sleep as designed. Considering that the Bluetooth settings shows the Magic Mouse as a mouse, I believe it might be an issue with the OS no longer seeing these devices as mice.

Hope they fix the bug soon!

Same here - 10.12.3 didn't do a thing for me.have

I have 2 Logitech MX Master mice (1 for the office, one for home) plus a Logitech Anywhere Mouse 2 for travel. All 3 have the same problem:

* None of the mice show up in the Bluetooth device panel as mice (just the generic Bluetooth icon)

* When plugged in, the MBP (Early 2015, i7, 16GB) is set up NOT to sleep, just trigger the screen saver after 30 minutes

* If I log in within 5 minutes of the screen saver starting, the mice generally reconnect (occasionally they don't, though)

* Longer than 5 minutes with the screen saver running, every single time the mice do not reconnect

If I open the Bluetooth devices panel, any of the mice immediately reconnect. Turning any mouse off and then on does nothing. Oddly, restarting the MBP does nothing either - it is like the mice are permanently disconnected until I go into the Bluetooth panel - then they reconnect and work.

I have removed and re-paired the mice with no change.

All 3 mice worked without problems on my Surface Book under Windows 10.

Well, my celebration of 10.12.3 has been very brief. Logitech MX Master on MacBook Pro 15" Retina mid 2014 the only way the mouse re-pairs on case open, restart, awaken (whether or not after PRAM reset) is simply to open the Bluetooth Preference Pane. Then behold as the mouse re-pairs (no user action required). Why it takes opening the Pane is beyond me -- it's almost like bluetooth don't get no respect unless you open the Pane. And as easy as that may be, it's equally Pane and Pain.

So far since I've updated to 10.12.3 I don't think I've had to open the bluetooth preferences pane and my MX Master has stayed connected. However, the day I updated to 10.12.3 I also downloaded the newest version of Logitech Options 6.40.106 as I noticed the version I had was out of date and wasn't updating automatically.

So, installed. The Bluetooth preferences panel still shows all 3 Logitech mice as generic Bluetooth devices, not as mice specifically. After I finish this, I will let the computer go to sleep normally and see if the Options update helped with that...